From data to decisions: material footprints in European policy making

What is the significance of material footprints?

The EU’s material footprint is a measure of the amount of raw materials extracted from nature, both within and outside the EU, to deliver goods and services consumed by EU citizens. Despite a growing economy, the EU’s material footprint has remained stable over the last decade, which suggests modest improvements in resource efficiency. The calculation of material footprint is a complex endeavour. Significant progress has been made in recent years to enable the systematic use of such data in policymaking. This briefing highlights how Eurostat data on material footprint can inform policymaking at the EU and national levels.

In our current linear economic model, prosperity is largely based on the use of resources extracted from nature. Globally, the extraction and processing of natural resources to feed our production and consumption systems produce more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions and around 40% of air pollution (approximated by particulate matter emissions) (UNEP and IRP, 2024). Extraction and processing also drive over 90% of land-based biodiversity loss. The Eighth Environment Action Programme (8^th EAP) is the EU’s response to the environmental challenges posed by resource use and calls for a significant reduction of the EU’s material footprint as soon as is possible.

In this briefing, we analyse the EU’s material footprint data and assess trends from 2010 to 2021 as a means of understanding how the use of biomass, metals, non-metallic minerals and fossils has contributed to the overall material footprint. To understand what drives material resource use in the EU, total consumption expenditure is assessed across six domains of consumption, namely housing, food, services, household goods and services, clothing and footwear, and personal mobility. Using this information, policymakers can focus efforts to reduce material consumption where the highest potential for reduction lies.

This briefing is based on Eurostat material footprint data (Eurostat, 2024b) and (Eurostat, 2024a) and underpinned by a technical note describing our methodology and providing more detailed analysis, which is available for download here.

The EU’s material footprint

As shown in Figure 1, the EU’s material footprint remained relatively stable between 2010 and 2021, with minor variations attributable to the long-term impact of the economic crisis of 2008 and the COVID pandemic. The EU’s material footprint stood at 6.6 billion tonnes in 2021, down from a peak of 7.0 billion tonnes in 2011. Notably, the 15% growth of the EU economy between 2010 and 2021 did not lead to a comparable increase in the EU’s material footprint. However, the shares of the four material categories that constitute the total material footprint varied over this period.

Overall, an increase in the use of non-metallic minerals and biomass was offset by the decrease in the use of fossil energy materials. This is important because  environmental impacts associated with the material extraction and the processing of materials to the point that they are ready for use by the manufacturing industry vary across the different material categories (ETC CE, 2023). The largest environmental impacts are associated with fossil fuels, followed by biomass and metal ores (EEA, 2023b).

The largest category within the 2021 material footprint is non-metallic minerals, which accounted for half of the total. Between 2010 and 2021 the footprint of this category increased by 8%, mainly due to the increased use of materials for construction. The gross value added of the construction industry is linked to the increased use of non-metallic minerals. Despite being the largest consumed material category, the use of non-metallic minerals is associated with moderate environmental impacts (ETC CE, 2023).

The second largest material category was biomass, which accounted for 22% of the material footprint in 2021. The 7% increase in biomass use compared to 2010 was mainly due to the increased consumption of products related to agriculture and hunting, food, beverages and tobacco, textiles and wood. The EU demand for biomass is mainly met by domestic extraction (EEA, 2023a), with most of the resulting environmental impacts manifesting as biodiversity loss in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems as well as from water stress.  

The use of fossil energy materials, which accounted for 19% of the total material footprint in 2021, fell by 21% between 2010 and 2021. This reflects the fact that the amount of fossil energy fuels used to produce a range of products and commodities has decreased over time (electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning had the biggest drop). The production and use of fossil energy materials are associated with significant environmental impacts, especially climate change, so the sustained reduction of their use is a markedly positive development.

In 2021, metal ores made up the smallest share, around 9%, of the total material footprint. While there was a 22% rise in consumption of metal ores between 2012 and 2018, over the full time period 2010-2021 the use of metal ores decreased by 2%. Despite the small relative decrease in metal ore consumption between 2010 and 2021, demand for metals will be increasing, especially for those that play a key role in the energy transition and electrification of transport (UNEP and IRP, 2024).

What drives material consumption in the EU?

This section:

• describes material use across six consumption domains to understand what drives resource consumption;
• uses data on total consumption expenditure to assess the expenditure hotspots and derive the material intensity of every consumption domain.

The use of the four material categories was analysed along with the total consumption expenditure for six broad consumption domains, namely food, housing, personal mobility, household goods and services, services and clothing and footwear (see the box above for details).

Figure 2 presents the material footprint of the six consumption domains in the EU for both 2010 and 2021, as well as the share of the material footprint attributable to non-metallic minerals, biomass, fossil energy materials and metal ores per consumption domain. The shares of consumption domains in the EU material footprint in 2021 are also shown.

In terms of what drives the use of material resources in the EU, housing had the largest share in 2021 with 52% of the EU’s material footprint. Food followed with 20%, while services, personal mobility and household goods accounted for 11%, 8% and 8% respectively. Clothing and footwear consumed the least resources of the six consumption domains, accounting for only 1% of the material footprint. In terms of the change between 2010 and 2021, the material footprints of food, personal mobility, household goods and services decreased, while those of housing and clothing and footwear increased.

The two consumption domains contributing the largest shares of the EU’s material footprint in 2021 were housing and food, which together accounted for 72% of the total material footprint. Looking at material categories, housing and food together accounted for the use of:

• 80% of non-metallic minerals;
• 80% of biomass;
• 51% of fossil energy materials;
• 44% of metal ores.

Total consumption expenditure across consumption domains

Total consumption expenditure measures the spending and investments of households, governments and non-profit institutions on goods and services in the EU.

Between 2010 and 2021, total consumption expenditure in the EU increased by 10%, from EUR 10 billion to EUR 11.1 billion. The three consumption domains with the highest EU expenditures accounted for 79% of total EU consumption expenditure in 2021. These were:

• services 38%;
• housing 29%;
• household goods 12%.

While the EU’s total consumption expenditure increased from 2010 to 2021, the material footprint remained relatively stable. In other words, the rise in total consumption expenditure did not lead to an increase in material use in the EU. Over the period, a higher amount of goods and services were delivered using the same amount of natural resources.

Possible explanations for this modest decoupling include the shift away from fossil fuels toward other, less material-intensive energy sources, an increase in resource-efficiency in global manufacturing processes (UNEP and IRP, 2024) and a shift in consumer expenditure (Figure 3) towards goods and services that are less material intensive.

Figure 3 presents total EU consumption expenditure for 2010 and 2021. Household goods and services showed the highest increases in total consumption expenditure, rising 21% and 11% respectively, while expenditure on food, and clothing and footwear showed little change.

Resource efficiency across key consumption domains

Increasing resource efficiency is crucial to achieving the objectives of the 8^th EAP, which calls for a significant reduction in the EU’s material footprint. Reducing resource consumption can mitigate the impact of resource extraction and processing, which has been identified as one of the main drivers of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution (UNEP and IRP, 2024).

Figure 4 presents the material intensity of the six consumption domains for 2010 and 2021. Material intensity improved in all consumption domains when comparing data from 2010 and 2021. The largest improvements were in personal mobility, services and household goods. In 2021 the two consumption domains with the highest contributions to the total material footprint — housing and food — also had the highest material intensity. The material intensity of housing was roughly twice that of household goods and personal mobility and four times that of clothing and footwear. Services use the least materials per euro spent, which is roughly eleven times less than housing.

Making sense of it all — how to reduce EU material footprint?

The level of resource use in the EU is very high, higher than in most other regions of the world. High resource use is responsible for severe environmental degradation across the world, linked to climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution (EEA, 2024) (UNEP and IRP, 2024). It is, therefore, imperative to try to reduce primary resource consumption, as recognised by the EU’s 8^th EAP. In this section, we argue for sectoral policies to address resource demand in each of the identified consumption domains.

Housing has the highest absolute demand for materials and is responsible for 52% of the EU material footprint, dominated by non-metallic minerals such as sand and gravel, which account for nearly three-quarters of the total. Housing accounted for 29% of total consumption expenditure in 2021 and had the highest material intensity, with very little improvement from 2010 to 2021. The very high material footprint of housing means that no significant reduction in the EU’s material footprint can be achieved without addressing our built environment. On the other hand, the environmental benefit from avoiding extraction of non-metallic minerals is relatively small. Targeted policies promoting the use of ethically produced, low-carbon and renewable building materials can help. An example is the new Construction Products Regulation. Additionally, to reduce the resource needs of housing, crucial indirect initiatives are needed that, for instance, promote renovation instead of new buildings.

Food accounts for 20% of the EU’s material footprint and is dominated by the use of biomass, which accounts for around three-quarters of the total. Food accounted for 11% of the total consumption expenditure in 2021. While the material intensity of the food domain was the second highest among all consumption domains in 2021, there was a 9% decrease in intensity by 2021 compared to 2010. The potential for a radical reduction of the food sector’s material footprint is rather low as it is composed of food items essential to our societies. However, dietary shifts and the management of food waste can contribute to reducing the food sector’s material footprint (Galli et al., 2023). Relevant legislative frameworks have been proposed. For example, the EU’s farm to fork strategy paves the way for sustainable food production, minimising food packaging and transport needs. The biodiversity strategy for 2030 ensures the minimisation of environmental impacts and the sustainable use of biomass. The recent regulation on deforestation-free products aims at stopping deforestation. Nonetheless, more effective policy implementation is needed to ensure sustainable biomass management and improved circular and cascading biomass use (EEA, 2023c). The prioritisation of biomass feedstocks and products is needed following a careful evaluation of economic, societal and environmental costs (more information can be found in the EEA report The European biomass puzzle).

Services, accounting for 11% of the total material footprint, mostly rely on the use of non-metallic minerals and fossil energy materials. In 2021 services had the highest total consumption expenditure and the lowest material intensity among all consumption domains. These results suggest that shifting disposable income to services instead of mobility, for example, would decrease our material footprint. Circular business models — although their scale is still rather limited — operate under this logic. These seek to replace ownership with sharing, thus replacing products with the service they provide.

The personal mobility of Europeans is responsible for 8% of the total material footprint. More than half of it results from the use of fossil energy materials and around a quarter from non-metallic minerals. Personal mobility accounted for 9% of the total consumption expenditure in 2021. Considering the 8% increase in the total consumption expenditure between 2010 and 2021 and a 14% drop in material footprint over that period, the material intensity of personal mobility improved the most among consumption domains. The increased total expenditure in this consumption domain can be attributed to the growing number of cars in Europe being used to drive longer distances (EEA, 2023d). The improved material intensity can be explained by the increased fuel-efficiency of new passenger cars, the increasing share of renewable energy (EEA, 2022b) and the continuously increasing share of electric cars in the EU’s passenger car fleet (EEA, 2024). Besides these very effective efforts, further improvement can be achieved by switching to more sustainable modes of transport. The sustainable and smart mobility strategy adopted in EU in 2020 aims at promoting the use of more sustainable transport modes. It calls for increasing the number of passengers travelling by rail and commuting by public transport and active modes, and transporting more goods by rail, inland waterways and short sea shipping instead of by road.

Household goods, accounting for 8% of the material footprint in 2021, is the second biggest consumer of metal ores after housing. Together with fossil fuels it accounts for more than half of the domain’s material footprint. Between 2010 and 2021, the total consumption expenditure on household goods registered the biggest increase (by 21%) among the consumption domains. Over the same period, the total material footprint decreased by 5%, leading to an improvement of the material intensity of this domain by 12%. To minimise the high environmental impact of household goods production the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation has been recently put into force. The regulation aims to increase the durability, repairability, upgradability and reusability of household goods like electronics.

Clothing and footwear made up only 1% of the EU’s total material footprint in 2021 and had the lowest total consumption expenditure among all domains. This expenditure was roughly 21 times smaller than the spending on services. The material intensity of clothing is the second best among all the domains. Nonetheless to address the high environmental footprint of clothing and footwear production a behavioural change and policy support are crucial to making the shift towards circular business models (EEA, 2022a).